Mass Effect 3 Will Require Origin

Yep. It's sensible for any publisher to sell their games through their own service and cut out middlemen as much as possible.

I'm a little baffled at how it is "an anti-competitive push" though. Surely if EA doing it is anti competitive then Valve doing it with their titles and steam- more so even, given steamworks and the unavailability of any valve game on other DD services which Origin games will be available on- is even more anti-competitive.

Zygo said:

Yep. It's sensible for any publisher to sell their games through their own service and cut out middlemen as much as possible.

I'm a little baffled at how it is "an anti-competitive push" though. Surely if EA doing it is anti competitive then Valve doing it with their titles and steam- more so even, given steamworks and the unavailability of any valve game on other DD services which Origin games will be available on- is even more anti-competitive.

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It's all about sharing the same market and getting people to use your platform over those of your competitors to gain more money directly without having the fuss of the old fashioned distrubition network and mechanics. I don't think EA is doing a sensible thing to not use the largest available online gamestore community, but I can understand why they do it.

Interesting thing is that ME 3 is not available on Steam but Reckoning is... New IP needs leverage while fans of the ME IP will buy regardless?!?!

basharran said:

Interesting thing is that ME 3 is not available on Steam but Reckoning is… New IP needs leverage while fans of the ME IP will buy regardless?!?!

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Bioware belongs to EA - the other developers not, or have I overloked something ?

rk47 said:

As opposed to giving a lot of content with the 59.99 price tag?
I don't know about you, but at that sort of pricing, I expect something a little bit extra than Dungeon Siege III with combo mechanics and goofy art design.

DS3 shipped with 40.00 price tag IIRC. I won't be pre-ordering KoA for virtual shinies at that premium price. Rather wait for next xmas sale and grab it at 20.00 with full dlc off Steam.

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Surely you aren't comparing Reckoning to Dungeon Siege 3? As for bang-for-your-buck, The QA department of Reckoning had speed runs in which they purposely skipped all dialog, cutscenes, and rushed everywhere as fast as possible, and it took them 200 hours to do 100% of the content there is in Reckoning. A normal human being will probably spend around 300 hours if not more doing all the content. The sheer amount of things to do in the game is easily comparable with a massive game like Skyrim. Some even venture a guess that there will be more content in Kingdoms of Amalur:Reckoning than there is in Skyrim. I don't particularly agree with that assumption, but who knows, they could be right. The game has been 7 years in the making, and the game is far from Dungeon Siege 3.

On top of that, they will be doing some massive DLCs for the game. Well, massive is a guess, but Curt Schilling himself said we would be very satisfied with the DLCs they are planning for the game, because they are trying to give you more game for your buck first and foremost. To most people that means they are doing significantly 'meaty' expansion-type add-ons.

I don't see a problem with EA using counter piracy measures. Until the torrent sites go the way of Megaupload (nicely done) they have to protect their property. Steam is a monopoly and last time I checked monopolies were bad for price competition. EA wants an exclusive title for exclusive sales and proliferation of their download client. Again... can you blame them?

ToddMcF2002 said:

Steam is a monopoly and last time I checked monopolies were bad for price competition.

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Origins will be a Monopoly, too.

A monopoly for EA games.

Hey, if Origin did their own system to avoid piracy, I'd actually applaud them. The thought that some little insignificant peon can steal property over the internet with basically zero chance of getting caught has always stuck in my craw. I'll pony up the cash just to support them in this endeavour.


-Carn

Both Predators and Parasites usually goes after the weakest ones.
And that would be Indies.
They usually don't have - for example - the same level/class of lawyers EA for example has. (Uh, my grammar once again ...)

ToddMcF2002 said:

I don't see a problem with EA using counter piracy measures. Until the torrent sites go the way of Megaupload (nicely done) they have to protect their property. Steam is a monopoly and last time I checked monopolies were bad for price competition. EA wants an exclusive title for exclusive sales and proliferation of their download client. Again… can you blame them?

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So ... I assume you agree with unbridled government ability to act in the interest of companies against citizens? So you must be in favor of SOPA/PIPA and believe that downloading a movie SHOULD be punished more than most violent felonies? Nice.

ToddMcF2002 said:

I don't see a problem with EA using counter piracy measures. Until the torrent sites go the way of Megaupload (nicely done) they have to protect their property. Steam is a monopoly and last time I checked monopolies were bad for price competition. EA wants an exclusive title for exclusive sales and proliferation of their download client. Again… can you blame them?

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Steam is a 'natural monopoly', like Google for search: in other words, they EARNED their market share.

You also have to separate Steam from Valve. Steam is a digital store that utilizes a number of user-centric tools to make for a better experience.

Valve makes games, and you can buy Valve games at retail as well ... but they utilize Steamworks for piracy protection, achievements, cross-platform play, cloud storage, and more.

When it comes to those tools ... Direct2Drive has nothing. GamersGate has nothing. Impulse has nothing. And so on.

The majority of games sold on Steam are NOT Valve games. That is a huge difference.

EA and Origin are one and the same - EA exists to make as much money as possible without regard to customers. Yeah that is true for most businesses, but pretending that EA isn't extreme in this regard is just denying reality and documented history of the past couple of decades.

The main sticking point between EA and Steam is that EA wants Steam to bring millions of customers and is willing to pay Steam their normal cut, but for any post-sale items (DLC) they want to cut Steam out. As I said - Steam is 100% correct in their assertion that if they bring the customers they deserve a fair share of revenue. Why? Because EA is such a crappy company that pretty soon they would be selling Dragon Age III as in-game for Mass Effect 3 to avoid paying royalties.

Origin was SUPPOSED to be a competitor to Steam, but instead EA has positioned it as an exclusionary way to maximize profits. They can bully sites like GamersGate to accept terms in exchange for hosting a big game, but Steam has enough clout to demand fair treatment.

EA's idea of fair is 'we buy ads, you give us 85% reviews or you will never get a pre-release game again', or 'we let you sell our game, you accept our unfair terms or else you don't get the game'. There is a reason they are regarded as the worst company in gaming - because THEY ARE. Let's not forget all of the coverage of the unfair labor practices a few years back.

I support competition - I have a bunch of games from GamersGate, and too many from Impulse and Direct2Drive that I have had to replace now that they are becoming tools to push other things for evil companies like GameFly and GameStop. But this isn't competition, anymore than what Google is doing these days is competition.

As I have read elsewhere, it is a shame when you are left with little choice but to root for failure. Because of EA approaching this like a typical EA move, I now want Mass Effect 3 to fail and for Origin to fail. Because otherwise it is a very bad portent for our industry.

txa1265 said:

Origin was SUPPOSED to be a competitor to Steam, but instead EA has positioned it as an exclusionary way to maximize profits. They can bully sites like GamersGate to accept terms in exchange for hosting a big game, but Steam has enough clout to demand fair treatment.

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I, er, disagree pretty much point for point, but won't bore the socks off everyone by going into details. This though I think illustrates the essence of why I disagree:

If EA bullies sites like GG to accept Origin how does Valve not bully sites to accept Steamworks titles? They're both competing stores bundled into something being sold by another store. From Valve's POV the whole point of steamworks is that once their store is installed it becomes far more likely that people will buy direct from them, they aren't providing it out of the goodness of their hearts. Exactly as with EA and Origin (and with respect to exclusivity of DLC note that Return to Karkand at least is available from GG rather than just Origin). Steam is a monopoly because it controls ~80% of the market, not because it controls 100% of Valve titles.

In the end if the consumer doesn't like something they should not purchase it. Yet time after time people always support or buy them. Good or bad its the reason why we face the problems today in the videogame market.

I'm all for competition and its a fact steam always wasn't a good service. I don't mean to come across as crass but all the seam die hards have to accept there will be other challengers for Digital distribution.

Steam isn't the be all of the digital business. I mean in a nutshell how dare we give another service a right to challenge another company. All I see is contradictions. Steam and EA have the right to want more money neither of them is right or wrong. I dont particularly like either service but were stuck with them.

As for SOPA/PIPA I cant support them as the bill is. It gives to much power to the business side and not enough to the citizen. I didn't know corporations controlled America now.

Zygo said:

Steam is a monopoly because it controls ~80% of the market, not because it controls 100% of Valve titles.

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Well, we don't disagree there - in fact, we agree ... Steam is a monopoly because it EARNED it.

Let me be clear - Steam is all about profit, but it ALSO delivers significant value to the consumer as I illustrated before. If you deny that Steam delivers *MUCH* more value to consumers than ANY other digital delivery service, not sure how to help you out.

Origin delivers NOTHING to consumers but the game itself. Period.

I hate origin I really do... they don't like Israel and don't sell a lot of products here...

darkling said:

Yet they are releasing Amalur on both Steam and Origin. Maybe they aren't planning any post-release DLC for Amalur.

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EA isn't releasing Amalur on Steam, 38 Studio is. Check the Steam page, 38s is listed as the publisher there.

txa1265 said:

So … I assume you agree with unbridled government ability to act in the interest of companies against citizens? So you must be in favor of SOPA/PIPA and believe that downloading a movie SHOULD be punished more than most violent felonies? Nice.

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I think hosting copyrighted material illegally should have consequences? The rest are your words. Am I sorry to see Megauloads gone? Hardly. Why is it people have a problem with enforcing the law when it comes to the internet? Smells like people have a misguided sense of entitlement to me. All these torrent sites and file shares.. f*ck em! Clean it up!

ToddMcF2002 said:

I think hosting copyrighted material illegally should have consequences? The rest are your words. Am I sorry to see Megauloads gone? Hardly. Why is it people have a problem with enforcing the law when it comes to the internet? Smells like people have a misguided sense of entitlement to me. All these torrent sites and file shares.. f*ck em! Clean it up!

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I have always been very strongly anti-piracy - and as such I have no issue with any avenue of piracy disappearing. But how does the US have jurisdiction? What about any legal hosted files - and apparently there were PLENTY. What happens to that - just collateral damage in the corporate sponsored international bullying?

There is a difference between stopping piracy - which I support - and what happened here. I have no clue about MegaUpload ... but I know MediaFire well because I have two different betas I am working on where the files are hosted there.

I have heard that other sites have stopped sharing illegal files in hopes of avoiding this - and that is a good thing.

But as always I am worried about our ever-growing authoritarian government which has no concerns beating the shit out of citizens when they stand in the way of the payola from special interests and even bullying other countries in order to get the interests of the MPAA and RIAA done.

The MPAA and RIAA cannot exist without copyright enforcement. Its easy to call them the evil empire (like it is EA)... but they have a right to lobby for enforcement. And the US has no jurisdiction overseas - they simply request that international law be enforced and the other party complies... or not. In Mega's case, they drew the short straw.

ToddMcF2002 said:

The MPAA and RIAA cannot exist without copyright enforcement. Its easy to call them the evil empire (like it is EA)… but they have a right to lobby for enforcement.

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Sure - but in what sane world does downloading a movie even equate to taking a candy bar from the convenience store ... let alone armed grand larceny of robbing a bank at gunpoint - which is the type of punishment these guys seek for even casual pirates. That is indefensible - and again, follow the money.

How does it happen that a government that cannot agree on the time of day suddenly fast-tracks ever more authoritarian restrictions that circumvent established supreme court rulings and criminalize actions?

You and I agree that piracy is wrong, and that rights-holders deserve enforcement. But that should be about the 9999th priority for law enforcement - NO ONE will ever die from this, therefore ANYTHING that kills should be more important ... but it isn't. Because WE don't have millions to buy out the government, but they do.

I want piracy gone, but am not willing to support our growing police state as it encroaches further and further into our rights and lives. We have seen stark examples this year of where priorities lie - corporations and money first, citizens last. Because people will say 'piracy is wrong' and allow militarized enforcers to storm our houses when they detect a piracy action ... maybe not today, but we're getting there FAST.

Listen. The chief of Mega personally made 42 million last year on advertising because the hit rate was so high. The hit rate was high because he offers incentives to uploaders who can draw the hits. Guess what draws the hits? Copyrighted material. That's one big ass candy bar. 42 miiiiiiiillllllion dollars! Now he faces extradition and quite frankly he deserves it. Let the precedent be set.